Chaosium Inc. announced today that it had acquired the rights to King Arthur Pendragon and Prince Valiant: The Storytelling Game from Nocturnal Media.

King Arthur Pendragon was designed by Greg Stafford, and was originally published by Chaosium in 1985. Instead of the fantasy themes that were common in role playing games of the period, the game remained true to the poems and stories surrounding England’s legendary king, drawing heavily from works such as Le Morte d’Arthur. Stafford himself considered King Arthur Pendragon to be his greatest work in the role playing genre.

Similarly, Prince Valiant drew on Hal Foster’s long-running comic strip, and featured a simple rules system that was suitable for younger players and a focus on cooperative storytelling. Prince Valiant was pubished by Chaosium in 1989. A new edition of the game was launched in 2018 (see “‘Prince Valiant Storytelling Game’ Comes to Trade”).

Rights to both properties exchanged hands a number of times over the years, first transferring to Green Knight Publishing before they were acquired by White Wolf’s publishing partner Arthaus (see “Arthaus Acquires Pendragon”). When White Wolf merged with CCP, the ownership of both games was transferred to Nocturnal Media, where Stewart Wieck and Stafford collaborated to produce new editions of both games.

Now King Arthur Pendragon and Prince Valiant have returned to their original home, and both games and their supplemental material will be available from Chaosium in the future. David Larkins will continue to act as the line editor for King Arthur Pendragon, now under the auspices of Chaosium.

Chaosium and Nocturnal announced a deal at Gen Con earlier this year, under which Chaosium would assist Nocturnal with the distribution of Nocturnal’s products, including King Arthur Pendragon. The partnership between the companies will continue.